After a three-decade stint on the iconic Vegas strip, the performers from the production Jubilee! executed their last choreographed kick in 2016. The show, famous for its elaborate costumes crafted by celebrated designer Bob Mackie, came to an end due to dwindling audience numbers and disappointed reviewers who labeled it a spectacle “trapped in time”.
Now, almost a decade later, showgirls, or at least the glamorous showgirl look, is back.
A Master of Glitz
Known as the “master of glitz”, Mackie has made dramatic showgirl glamour his defining aesthetic, dressing everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna. Recently, a “barely-there” bodysuit he created for Cher in 1978 sold for $57,600, seven times its initial estimate, while a silver and gold tasseled bodysuit with lamé wings that Mackie designed for Tina Turner for a 1977 show sold for $19,200.
“In my view it looks more attractive for the emerging artists who is seeking something other than what they grew up with”, he explained to a newspaper. “Contemporary performers are pushing toward a theatrical, more spectacular, breathtaking, entrance-making statement.”
A Musical Resurgence
It’s a look that sashayed all the way to the heart of popular culture in 2025 largely due to a global pop icon. In the past few months, the cultural juggernaut wore one of Mackie’s classic Jubilee! costumes on the cover of her latest record. The crystal-covered bra and thong, feathered armbands and sparkly headpiece were tailor-made for a record named The Life of a Showgirl.
The singer has company. This year, showgirl references have been incorporated by pop stars including Dua Lipa as they danced across arena stages in sparkles, strategic openings and plumes, highlighted against theatrical sets. A top stylist Lorenzo Posocco told Vogue he wanted to bring “a stage persona” to her Radical Optimism tour – drawing from pictures from the 1950s, her performers waved giant plumed accessories.
Drawing from Tradition
Lipa, Carpenter and other chart toppers also reference classic entertainment forms, including classic theater and chorus line references. The results are vastly different from the 1990s era Britney Spears era of revealing tops and baggy pants, and street-style dance moves that preceded this trend.
But some critics are convinced with this showgirl renaissance. A former performer, a ex- Jubilee! showgirl who entertained in the early 2000s says the trend is “puzzling”. She thinks the word term is being “used as an umbrella term covering everything from The Radio City Rockettes to Broadway performers and now apparently today's icons.”
The Coveted Vintage Style
For gen Z and millennial stars, Mackie’s retro designs have become highly covetable. In 2024, Zendaya paid tribute to one of Mackie’s iconic muses, Cher, when the star wore a see-through embellished dress made by the designer in 2001, which was inspired by one he designed for Cher to wear in 1967. Subsequently, a singer paid an undisclosed sum to buy the Mackie beaded mini dress she had worn earlier in the year to perform at the Grammys. In September, Carpenter wore a trio of vintage Mackie designs at the MTV Video Music Awards. They are also a hit among collectors.
“The showgirl aesthetic evoke nostalgia for a past glamour,” says Su Kim Chung, head of special collections at the a Las Vegas university, who researches the history of showgirls. “Today it is considered a sort of ‘toned-down’ appeal because it has been updated. It has got all the sophistication, the sparkles and the glitter but without the bare skin.”
A Than Just Style: An Symbol of Las Vegas
She says this figure are integral to the imagery of Las Vegas. She points to former mayor Oscar Goodman who, during public appearances, was flanked by two showgirls. Even though Las Vegas currently lacks any showgirl-based productions, Chung says they are still featured as an emblem of the city, appearing at conventions and in promotional material. “The showgirl is still a enduring figure of Vegas glamour,” Chung says.
The Appeal of Illusion
Hardy says the transformative effect of a showgirl is part of the allure. It’s something Taylor Swift references in a latest docuseries that documents the backstage action from her massive 2023 Eras tour, which included exhausting preparations, training and 149 concerts across dozens of cities, each running for 3.5 hours.
Hardy describes her own showgirl performances as “like running a marathon in heels every night”. Her headdress weighed 34lbs. “I had to wear it all the way up the steps to the performance area from the backstage area three floors below in the underground. I had to leave early for my moment so I could rest before I performed. You’re working hard the whole time but crafting this fantasy that it’s simple and gorgeous and magical.”
Maybe this is where the true allure of the showgirl fantasy really resides. In the complexity of 2025 there is a longing for fantasy. What better figure to emulate than these performers, who have always embodied fantasy, perfection and a world where no one makes a mistake.
